Continuing the harvest theme at the Family Service last night, we identified different fruit and vegetables from pictures and anagrams in the quiz and then Mark took things a step further by getting people to taste various foods and identify them from taste alone:
Karen correctly identified this as ‘a spice’; it was root ginger (also described by Ellen as ‘onion wrapped in sugar’!)
Karen identified this as ‘date’ straightaway:
Jimmy had a cola-flavoured sweet to identify:
Other things tasted included kiwi, grape, chocolate, raisins and melon.
Mark preached from Ps 34:1-10.
The psalm starts by worshipping God, no matter what the circumstances. Praising God has to become our modus operandi, the way we function in all situations, our automatic response to life.
God is faithful to deliver those who seek Him. We are to seek Him and will find Him utterly faithful and able to protect us and deliver us. He even gives angels the job of guarding us!
Verse 8 tells us “taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.” Just as the people tasting the food found it very difficult to describe the food to the rest of us, so we need to be prepared to actually take the plunge into all that God has for us. We need to be responsive and receptive to God. We also need to serve Him in the way He is calling us, rather than just in the way we might want to. Those who seek the Lord will lack no good thing (vs 10). We need to have the faith to take the risk and actually prove God in our own lives, dwelling in His word, which is sweeter than honey (Ps 119:103, and there was some of that for Dave to taste as well!)
Often children are reluctant to try new foods and have to be urged by parents ‘Try it: you might like it!’ In the same way, we have to be willing to step out in faith to try the things God puts on our hearts. To refuse to do that is disobedience and leads to us missing out on God’s best for our lives.